Josef Strau
The Renaissance Society
5811 South Ellis Avenue
Cobb Hall, 4th floor
September 21–November 9, 2014
Curated by Solveig Øvstebø
While running Galerie Meerrettich in Berlin from 2002 to 2008, the artist Josef Strau became interested in making again, distancing himself from what he retrospectively termed the “non-productive attitude” of the early-1990s Cologne scene. Yet motifs of bohemian life, laziness, hesitation, and struggles with productivity are written into Strau’s work quite literally, even ifglued to lampshades or on posters replete with typographic diversionshis diaristic stream of consciousness is difficult to read. When asked a few years back whether he still did lamps, Strau responded, “No, I still do texts.” Most authors can say a thing or two about the precarious economy of writing. In Strau’s case, the problem of not being able to “sell the pure text” proved astonishingly productive. His first institutional exhibition in the US presents new works around the literary motif of rewriting existing material. A publication of Strau’s own texts will be accompanied by a volume with contributions by fellow artists and an essay by Whitney Museum curator Jay Sanders.